That’s like first generation carbon failure and those went away 20 years ago. I’d blame the manufacturer specifically in that case because it’s both catastrophic & unexpected.
Also, speed matters. Going 15 or 50 when the thing breaks makes a difference.
Isnt this an argument that helmets are more important for passenger vehicles? After all, car accidents cause about 10x more head trauma in the usa.
But, if absolute safety is paramount, you do want a five point harness, flameresistant coveralls, neck support, and a helmet, sure.
In fact the odds aren't bigger than when running. Do you think runners should wear helmets?
I chose to wear or not my helmet depending on the conditions. Running errands nearby on my girlfriend's lady bike? I don't use it. Riding on mostly separated bicycle paths at my girlfriend's slow pace, same. Riding 3h on the roads or trails on my road and mountain bikes, I wear it.
After all, are you strapping on a helmet while you're out walking, or driving a car? Sometimes, very rarely, that could be what saves your life.
Says who?
Just a couple of days ago I had a runner get past me while I was walking on the street, 2 seconds later she hit a bump on the pavement with her foot and fell down hard (she even made a loud splash sound as she hit the ground). No, she didn't have a helmet. Should she have?
At the end of the day, people should be walking around in full steel plate armour, for protection and safety. Or even better, not walking around at all. Bicycles should be banned!
> it's easy to hit a crack in the pavement and lose control on a bike.
No, its not. The person who says this probably hadn't ridden a bicycle in their life, or if they have, not often and not recently.
Bicycle wheels are EXCELLENT at getting over cracks, bumps, ditches, holes, whatever - as long as the attack angle is as close to 90 degrees as possible. It is the riders responsibility to make sure that is the case. Wider tires also help, lower pressures too... and high speeds, counterintuitively.
Of course, if you are afraid of falling or uncertain of your skills on the bike, wear a helmet by all means. Just don't think that it is "normal" and all riders are like that.
Did she hit her head? Humans are hardwired by millions of years of evolution to protect themselves in falls using their arms and hands; they generally handle falls very well. Humans have not evolved to handle riding bikes, and using your hands to protect your head in falls isn't instinctive there like it is while running or walking.
>No, its not. The person who says this probably hadn't ridden a bicycle in their life, or if they have, not often and not recently.
This is just stupid and argumentative. Road surfaces are frequently bad and people make mistakes.
>Of course, if you are afraid of falling or uncertain of your skills on the bike, wear a helmet by all means.
Yes, because I'm sure you're such a perfect rider who never makes a mistake.
Helmets are designed to limit head injuries when you bang your head on the ground mostly. If you get mauled by a truck or a suv it is unlikely to help much although it will still help if you bang and rebound on it.
you are much more likely to fall from a bicycle than while walking or getting in or out of a car. For people who are at risk from falling while walking, yes, precautions are taken that they not fall or hit their heads (or hips), it's quite dangerous.
That's the exact same argument the anti-helmet crowd is making of cycling.
In order for your argument to work, you have to either provide a quantitative basis for why your tradeoff totally is worth it and the other is not, or you have to come up with a qualitatively different argument.
> the additional protection of a helmet is not worth the additional inconvenience
I actually pointed out that protection of a helmet for pedestrians is called for as standard practice (by others, not by me)
As a road cyclist I go 30-50 km/h with a helmet. And as a commuter I’ll keep a moderate 20 km/h without a helmet. Big difference in terms of kinetic energy.
Biking at less than 25km/h just isn't that dangerous (unless a car hits you)
Anyway it’s weird because it doesn’t look broken on a weld, very rare situation, titanium should last forever.
Yikes! Fork failure is the stuff of nightmares. I'm glad you're okay.
Among the participants of a local riding club in my area, I've met two people with custom titanium frame builds who told me that their frames cracked within a few years of use.
Still have nightmares about a fork that, during a mountain bike descent 30 years ago, started oscillating increasingly until it bent and locked the wheel perpendicular to my vector - and my buddy still has dreams of me acting Superman along his ride, for a few short instants...
I've always thought a spring bronze/brass frame would be fun. Even better modulus of elasticity, but the strength to weight is much worse.
Also keep waiting to see flash bainite frames.
One guy was going over railroad tracks and his handlebars just came off. Not what you want in the middle of a cat-1/pro peloton.
It was a break that I would have noticed much sooner, had I regularly inspected it, because the other side was half broken off.
The funny thing is, I play in a band, and when I told my story that night, 3 guys in the band offered to weld it.